A strike mechanism commonly used in wristwatches includes a hammer which strikes a gong. The hammer is moved away from its rest position, then released and strikes the base portion of the gong which is arranged in a circle around the movement. One drawback of this type of strike mechanism is that the intensity of the sound produced is weak.
A second type of strike mechanism is similar to the strike mechanisms used in music boxes. A mechanism of this type is shown schematically in FIG. 1 annexed to this patent application. This mechanism, designated as a whole by the general reference numeral 1, essentially includes a rotating drum 2 at the surface of which are arranged lugs 4. When drum 2 rotates, one of the lugs 4 lifts up a gong 6 and gradually moves it away from its rest position until gong 6 is released from lug 4 and abruptly relaxes. While relaxing, gong 6 vibrates and produces a sound. This mechanism has the advantage of producing sounds of greater intensity. However, driving rotating drum 2 requires a significant amount of energy, which makes it difficult to integrate this mechanism in a watch which has only a small energy reserve.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks in addition to others by providing a sound generating mechanism that can easily be integrated for example in a wristwatch and that produces a sound of great intensity.